Date Night is Every Night

Person A: “What do you want to do?”
Person B: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
Person A: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
Person B: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
Person A: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

It’s about as much fun as jogging through applesauce in SCUBA gear or watching fat separating from gravy, right?

Maybe less.

Each side thinks they’re being polite by letting the other make the big decision, but it devolves into an exercise in frustration when it becomes clear that the only thing on the roster is listening to the other person being equally indecisive. It can go on for hours! And hours. And hours. What usually happens is a compromise that neither side finds to be a truly thrilling, made only for the sake of ending the stalemate.

Let’s admit it: It’s happened to me, and it’s happened to you. So how do we break the endless cycle?

Diana and I have had success with this strategy: One of the parties involved whittles down the list of potential activities to two or three choices from which the other party can pick. This works great for dinners, especially. In this vlog, for instance, she gave me the choice between American or Indian food. I chose American. We went. It was delicious. But the most important thing (aside from gorging our bellies with fine foodstuffs) was that we didn’t have the endless “what do you want to do?” loopversation while getting hungrier and hungrier for our lack of direction. Sure, it’s still a compromise, but not one selected out of last minute desperation.

What do you do when you’re stuck in such a situation? How do you break the loop?